The French Loire Valley’s Cheverny Castle

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we learn that a noble family calls this 600-year-old castle home.

Inspired by the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, the castle features a central building with two residential wings and corner pavilions topped with domes and horizontal carved stones on either side. The use of Bourré stone, a soft-colored stone from the Cher Valley which becomes lighter and harder with age is used on the façade. The family estate is characterized by its simplicity and symmetry, making it a precursor of the typically French style under Louis XIV. Yuri Turkov/Shutterstock

More than a grand estate, Cheverny Castle (Château de Cheverny) is a family home. Located in a lovely valley along the Loire River in central France, the castle shows what French family life was like in the past.

Once a feudal fortification, the name Cheverny first appeared in a deed in 1315; Jean Hurault, a financier and officer at the service of King Louis X of France, acquired it in the late 14th century. His grandson, Jacques, inherited the property and was given the title Lord of Cheverny (“Seigneur de Cheverny”). While the castle often changed hands over the centuries, it always returned to the Hurault family, who own and run the castle to this day.